ACE Statement on Student Loan Interest Rate Bills

May 23, 2013

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Today, the U.S. House of Representatives took the first step toward preventing the scheduled July 1 doubling of the interest rates that students will be charged to take out federal student loans. We are pleased that H.R. 1911 creates momentum for adopting a bipartisan solution to assist students by fixing this problem before the deadline passes, and we commend Representatives Kline and Foxx for their leadership on this issue.

ACE supports this bill because it meets many of the criteria that we believe are needed to permit students to access loans on reasonable terms, such as adopting a variable interest rate with a cap, rather than a rate Congress selects for them. ACE also supports S. 953, legislation introduced in the Senate by Senators Reid, Harkin, Reed and Murray. Although these two bills take different approaches toward addressing the rate hike, we believe the best hope of getting a good deal for students is for a strong House bill and a strong Senate bill to meet in conference in order to create a bipartisan fix before the July 1 deadline.

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